The main leaders of the ancient prose movement in the Mid-Tang Dynasty were Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan.
Ideological basis: The main ideological basis of the ancient prose movement in the Tang Dynasty was Confucianism. During the Mid-Tang Dynasty, a trend of thought to revive Confucianism emerged. Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan pushed the trend of thought to revive Confucianism to its peak.
However, it should be noted that the two have different opinions on the issue of reviving Confucianism.
Han Yu’s most prominent proposition was to re-establish the Confucian orthodoxy, transcending the classics after the Western Han Dynasty and returning to Confucius and Mencius. He regarded himself as the inheritor and defender of Confucius and Mencius. ★
Liu Zongyuan was also an important theorist who re-evaluated Confucian principles. Unlike Han Yu, he was not very interested in the so-called "Taoism" of Confucianism, nor did he reject Buddhism. What he valued more was that It is derived from the Confucianism of the Tao and Zhao schools that does not adhere to empty names and adopts appropriate measures to save trouble.
The core of the proposition: Wen Yi Ming Dao
Theory of ancient prose: On the basis of inheriting their predecessors, Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan put forward a clearer and more realistic theory of ancient prose. In summary, Han Liu's ancient prose theory has the following content
1. Wen Yi Ming Tao. Tao: Tao in Han Yu's prose has a strong feudal color. In Korean, Tao often has the orthodox ethics, politics and hierarchical concepts of Confucius and Mencius. Compared with Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan's Taoist materialism thoughts and political reform proposals are very prominent in his prose. ●
2. While advocating "literature to clarify the way", we are also fully aware of the role of "literature" and learn from the legacy of our predecessors in order to write good articles.
3. The culture should be "self-established and not follow the rules". The most important thing is innovation.
4. Han Yu’s essay attaches great importance to the writer’s moral cultivation and the emotional power of the article, believing that this is the key to writing a good article. On this basis, Han Yu also developed Mencius’s “Qi-nourishing theory” and Liang Su’s “Literary Qi theory”, and put forward a general principle for writing: “When Qi is strong, the words can be short or long, and the sound is high or low. ”
Han Liu’s pioneering work in prose
Su Shi believed that Han Yu’s “writing rose from eight generations to decline”. The emergence of Han and Liu made the creation of prose prose unique and the atmosphere changed. Han and Liu made many breakthroughs in the creation of prose, but they are mainly reflected in two aspects:
(1) Establishing new prose aesthetic standards based on the courage to innovate.
In terms of diction, Han and Liu both opposed the "embroidery, painting, carving" and "poems similar to those of the poor", and they also tried their best to absorb the advantages of parallel prose in their articles. , using many neat and powerful four-character sentences mixed in between prose sentences, creating a staggered and sonorous appeal effect.
From a linguistic point of view, Han Yu not only advocated "eliminating statements", but also emphasized "words should be followed in order", "body preparation" and "words sufficient".
From a technical point of view, Han Yu is good at using various creative methods to organize articles, and is good at enriching the image and appeal of articles through metaphors, parallelism, and detailed descriptions.
(2) Han and Liu injected rich emotions into their prose, which greatly enhanced the lyrical characteristics and artistic charm of the work, and raised the ancient prose to a true literary realm. When the prose of the Tang Dynasty reached Han and Liu, it can be said that a clear boundary monument was erected. Before, most of the works were mediocre, pale, and less appealing. However, Han and Liu's appearance changed. They contained a concentrated spiritual energy and emotional power in their solidity, showing extremely distinctive personality characteristics.
Comparison of the prose styles of Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan
Han Yu's prose is like a tide, and Liu Zongyuan's prose is like a river. Han Yu's writing is full of ups and downs, while Liu Zong Yuan's writing is full of thoughts.
Han Yu's writing is majestic and Liu Zong Yuan's writing is powerful.
In terms of subject matter and content, Han Yu's prose subjects are as broad as Liu Zongyuan's. They both actively reflect social reality and are extremely rich in content, which greatly promotes the application scope of prose.
Han Yu's narrative prose is mostly based on the deeds of bureaucrats, soldiers, and literati, while Liu Zongyuan's prose is mostly based on the natural phenomena of the lower class people. Han Yu is famous for his miscellaneous works, and Liu Zongyuan's landscape travel notes are full of poetic and picturesque meaning and are praised by future generations.
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